The purpose of this training program is to provide research training for persons with demonstrated accomplishment in the behavioral or in biomedical sciences. This training prepares students for independent research careers in epidemiology and behavioral medicine with emphasis in the areas of cardiovascular disease etiology and prevention. To accomplish this, we intend to build on the training program that has been in existence for the past nineteen years. In this program we select outstanding pre-doctoral and post-doctoral students who are exposed to an intensive program of academic training and supervised research experience. Post-doctoral students are admitted to a two- or three-year training program, consisting of one year of academic training and one or two years of supervised research training. The common core of the academic year is training in basic epidemiological and biostatistical principles and methods. Students complete a program of academic study in biomedical or behavioral areas in which they are deficient. At the end of the fist year, post-doctoral students gain supervised research experience by involvement in one of a large variety of on-going clinical, epidemiological, or intervention studies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pre-doctoral students are admitted to a three-year program of study leading to a PhD degree after having completed at least one prior academic year with a distinguished academic record. In previous years, the research emphasis in the training grant was on the identification of psychosocial risk factors for coronary heart disease. In this proposal, we expand our concern to include emphasis on biological mechanisms that link psychosocial factors to disease, to the study of more diverse populations to disease prevention. We have in this proposal expanded the number and range of research project available to trainees in the San Francisco Bay Area and we have broadened the disciplines represented in the Core and Associated Faculty Group.